Strengthening National Parks along the Zambezi River
Located along the Zambezi River, Lower Zambezi National Park, reaches 20 miles inland and extends 75 miles along the Zambezi River between the Chongwe River to the west and almost to the Luangwa River in the east. The park, the river, its tributaries, the acacia floodplains and the interconnecting wetlands are critical habitats to many important plant and wildlife species, including hippo, elephant, African wild dog, cheetah and lion.
Lower Zambezi National Park is a key focus of AWF’s conservation efforts in the Zambezi Heartland. In collaboration with the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) and park officials, AWF is working to improve infrastructure to serve a growing tourism industry in southern Zambia.
Settling on Conservation
The Lower Zambezi National Park General Management Plan was due for review to set the tone for the management direction for another 10 years, and in order to achieve the above, AWF offered to bring its protected area planning framework to the park. After some time, ZAWA, government stakeholders, tour operators and the local communities worked together to define a shared vision for the future of the park and surrounding areas.
Creating a Framework
As part of the strategic intervention to secure land for conservation, AWF has prioritized strengthening ZAWA’s planning efforts and infrastructure developments in Lower Zambezi National Park.
A critical complaint to ZAWA was being able to provide security and other services to the park with no housing or office facilities in or near the park. It was decided that the best solution to this problem would be to build a new warden’s house at Maliansolo near the boundary of the park, and to bring the ZAWA warden more readily available to oversee the park. Work on the house and office block were completed and handed over to the Zambia Wildlife Authority in 2009 and the review of the General Management Plan was finalized.
In moving forward, AWF is now looking at securing start-up funds to upgrade the Chongwe entry gate, construct a permanent revenue collection base at the park main entrance gate, the architectural plans of which have been completed, and to put signage on the major road network.
These visible infrastructural developments should see AWF and its wildlife authority partner uplift the face of this park that neighbors the Mana Pools World Heritage Site, thereby providing a firm base for launching the Mana-Lower Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) in this landscape.
Mana Pools National Park
AWF is lending support to another large landscape in the Zambezi Heartland, Mana Pools National Park, adjacent to the Lower Zambezi National Park and located on the Zimbabwe side of the Zambezi River. Mana Pools National Park is a World Heritage Site, and AWF is focused on protecting and conserving its biological diversity and ecological processes.
The Zambezi landscape contains over 18,000 square miles of viable wildlife habitat, anchored by both Mana Pools and Lower Zambezi National Parks. AWF is working to establish this Mana-Lower Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area (TFCA), which will allow for a greater landscape level conservation strategy for the Zambezi’s elephants and other wildlife.
